•Iomadi: (Yo-mah-dee): The Iomadi were once the supreme rulers in Adel. They conquered most of the continent via their numbers and power, but were soon ousted. They share traits of foxes and humans.
Long, straight ears of flexible skin extend from the sides of their heads, covered slightly with fur. A long, furry tail extends just above the buttocks, and all Iomadi clothing has a hole for it. In all other respects, they are like the humans that might be their close ancestors, though slightly shorter. Their eyes are bright and foreign, colored fancifully in orange, green or blue. Their hair is long and lustrous, usually red or brown. Their skin is light or dark toned depending on their environment. Southern and central Iomadi tend towards tan to brown skin while Iomadi from the north tend towards lighter, peach-toned skin.
Iomadi vary in their appearance as humans do – some might have droopy ears and very rare Iomadi have ears that point straight up at all times. If such a Iomadi has to hide, he might have to painfully mutilate his ears down into a drooping position, usually with the aid of a hammer or mace. Another rare quirk, almost as rare as having straight ears, is having multiple tails. The highest recorded number of tails was three.
Iomadi are a courageous race. They tend to have great people’s skills. They are comfortable with themselves and can read and speak to people very aptly. Their history said they were destined to lead, and though this was not ultimately so, they account for a great deal of the political power in Adel. But as all races, this varies.
-Common Professions: Any.
-Names: Iomadi names tend to be simple and average, such as Erica or Quinn.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 15, lives about 100 years, begins to age significantly at 45-50, becomes enfeebled by age around 80-85.
•Athirua: (Ae-thee-rua): The almost magical beauty of the Athirua has captivated the eyes, minds and lusts of the people of Adel since as far as there are accounts of them. A nomadic people, the Athirua are aloof, grandiose and exquisite. Their light, graceful bodies boast eerily beautiful and perfect indigo skin and golden hair.
The race is known for its beautiful women – and its hardly distinguishable effeminate men. Unlike other humanoids, variation in skin and hair tones and colors in Athirua is very rare, and celebrated among their culture as a supernatural beauty gifted by the spirits. Albino Athirua for example are almost revered within Athirua culture. Some Athirua are born especially gifted, with grey-black skin and white hair, and these rare grey and white Athirua are tge most idolized among their race.
The Athirua value individuality and personal appearance. They tend to wear revealing clothes, though the chest, even in men, is typically at least lightly covered. Their beauty is both a blessing and curse. With their indigo skin and golden (and sometimes, pale, red or light brown) hair, they are never mistaken and never missed. They are greatly coveted.
Athirua are often entertainers. They are a nomadic race that traveled around Adel, performing and passing on their arts and style. Their radically revealing clothing, fast and sensual dance and song, their tales of lust and romance, and the mysticism regarding such affairs, have all become extremely popular culture all around Adel.
Now it is not uncommon to see Athirua fashion, such as high cut or side-slit skirts, backless dresses, exposed midriffs, sleeveless and shoulder-less clothing, on any of the other races. The Damakran and Anpe in particular, who themselves did not take well to wearing any clothes at all, have taken well to the flair of Athirua outfits.
-Common Professions: Dancer, singer, acrobat, courtesan, diplomat.
-Names: Athirua often have flowing or soft names like Camille or Lyle, and males may have female gender-identified names.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 14, lives about 100 years, ages very little between 35 and 70 and not too drastically beyond that.
•Cuporo: (Cue-poe-roe): Cuporo are a widespread race with rather mysterious origins. Due to the odd wiles of the fey, it is unknown whether they are descended from humans, or if they are simply akin to them by fate. Cuporo tend to resemble human children in stature, build and development. Their hair is long and of earthly colors, greens, honey-blondes, browns, and are always entwined with what appears to be natural-growing reeds or algae. Their eyes are large, colorful and aware. Their skin is also boasting of earthly and vegetable coloration.
Cuporo intermingle with the other races and as a result, strange couplings of the small fey with the taller races can often be seen on the streets of larger cities. They are energetic, creative creatures that value their dignity and seek respect. Cuporo love travel and collecting lore and stories, and take well to learning new things.
They are said to have originated in the fey wilds of Selvage’s deepest jungles or the mysterious forests of central Periterim, and spread around Adel. Cuporo have no real niche in society, but try to make their own at whatever they wish to be. They are energetic and make great entertainers, but are also scholarly and perceptive, and their curiosity leads them to pursue many paths. They have a connection to nature and the divine spirits.
Some Cuporo have quirky appearances, with vines growing naturally from their hair or leaves from their bodies. This is rare, and tends to be made light fun of between Cuporos. Having a leaf pulled from their bodies hurts, but other races think a leaf from a Cuporo is good luck, which leads Cuporo to pull their own leaves to give to friends – or to sell.
-Common Professions: Merchant, scholar, bard, lawyer.
-Names: Cuporo names are often elaborate and compound, like Bartholmew or Annamaria.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 30, lives about 120 years, does not age too significantly until around 90.
•Damakran: (Dah-mah-krawn): Damakrans are a race of humanoids with the characteristics of sharks, though some might resemble other predatory fish more than they do sharks. They have typically short heads of hair, down to the jawline or shoulders, the colors of rust, or algae, or oils. Their skin varies from a light grey to a dark blue-grey and is almost entirely hairless. Their feet and hands are webbed and their ears are the shape of fish fins, with the outer cartilage being largely cosmetic. A small fin-like crest grows out from the peak of their heads, at the partition of the hair. This fin is a decorative matter to Damakran, who dress it up with rings and tattoos or other accessories. Male fins grow larger.
Though similar in build to humans, Damakran males easily end up larger and more muscular, and the females are taller than human females and more toned. Damakran are often temperamental and passionate. Though they can no longer live indefinitely in the sea, they still feel more at home in coasts or along rivers, playing in the waters that they perhaps once dominated. It is said that the mood of a Damakran depends heavily on how much liquid he or she has been covered in lately.
Damakran secrete a slime from their mouths as saliva that helps them to digest “land food”. This secretion is not harmful unless they want it to be – they turn it into a poison, or an acid or freezing agent every once in a while and spit it out. It is otherwise harmless, and in some less than proper social circles considered a very sensual trait.
Some Damakran are albino, and become pallid with red eyes and blond hair. These Damakran are rare and often slightly feebler than others, and are pushed all the harder to become tough like other Damakran. This tends to make them withdraw a bit, and forego the usual martial classes for other sources of power.
-Common Professions: Laborer, fisher, mercenary, exotic prostitute or courtesan.
-Names: Damakran often have gruff one-syllable names like Gerd or Kathe.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 17, lives about 90 years, does not age too significantly between 40 and 60, enfeebled at around 75.
•Dromidae: (Draw-meh-day): The Dromidae are a race of humanoids that existed in the forlorn voids. By means of their own alien magicks and ancient rituals the Dromidae created colonies in space. Their buildings themselves are creatures and are alive, able to convert the hostile atmosphere of the Voids into a less harsh space for the Dromidae to thrive in. Their origins are mysterious and they know not of the early Adel and even less about the Last Cataclysm. They are quite interested in both topics, as both are things that seemingly came before them.
Dromidae look very alike. They have no facial or body hair and their head hair is either white, pinkish or blood red, with their skins either light pink or light brown. They all have either golden or orange eyes. All Dromidae have long, ribbon-like white antennae that curve out from their foreheads and bend gracefully over their heads. Some are long enough to go over and fall behind the head, hanging as though part of their hair. Internally, their innards are coils of tentacular alien flesh. These features do not vary much.
All Dromidae are effeminate, and femininity is believed to be a perfect state of body in their culture, which reveres fertility and birth. They also admire plants as the other perfect natural form, which can survive and contribute to the world with only water, food and sun. Their society is matriarchal and ruled by a special Queen Dromidae who is born only every so often among their number.
There are native Dromidae that were born in Adel from immigrant parents, and there are the extra-planetary Dromidae immigrants that come from the Forlorn Void by means of portals and rituals. They regard each other as one in the same, having no racial conflict. They worship spirits of the sky, and of the darkness, but also revere old, nameless gods and monsters in their cities in the darkness beyond the sky.
Dromidae who live on Eden have adapted to the societies there while at the same time retaining some of their own culture. Dromidae are obsessed with health and cleanliness. They actively fear harm and disease and will habitually burn then replace any cheap equipment of theirs that has been handled by a sick person. They are apprehensive about filth and are not truly relaxed except when clean.
The only Dromidae with a very different look are so-called “Queen” Dromidae. In their civilization in space, only one Queen is ever born at a time. Having two Queens is possible now that the race has begun coupling with different species. The true Queen looks harshly upon any impostors.
-Common Professions: Physician, ritual caster, alchemist, mercenary, courtesan.
-Names: Dromidae are either numbered (usually Adel natives) or named fairly strangely (usually Void natives), such as Daelyma or Shofoth.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 15, lives about 100 years. Suffers no effects of aging beyond adulthood.
•Ainyu: (Aee-nyu): Ainyu are a spirit-descended humanoid race somewhat uncommon in Adel. They are alike to humans with silver or blonde hair, pale (sometimes grey or silver) skin, gold or red eyes and glowing sigils on their cheeks, palms and feet. Small living motes of light fly around them, usually three per ten years of age the Ainyu has.
An Ainyu can speak to and understand its motes, but the motes cannot travel more than thirty feet or so from the Ainyu and are for the most part blind to the outside world except for things the Ainyu can readily perceive. These little bits of consciousness are part of the Ainyu and waver when the main body is hurt. The Ainyu typically names them and marries off little pairs of them, if there are enough.
Ainyu are not asexual and have defined genders and characteristics, but nonetheless don’t reproduce. Whenever an Ainyu dies of old age its essence forms one or more newborn Ainyu by joining the wavering motes left behind. The consciousness of the old Ainyu is mostly lost as bits and pieces of it transferred amongst its children.
The new Ainyu’s motes retain memories of the old Ainyu and “care” for the child – they offer parental reassurance and guidance based on the bits of the old Ainyu that they have inside them. When the new Ainyu becomes an adult its motes become fully attuned to its consciousness and individuality, losing what remained of the old Ainyu.
When Ainyu take non-Ainyu companions, they might allow the companion to reproduce with one of its race in order to have a child. For the most part, lovers of Ainyu resign themselves to not having children, or don’t want any in the first place. Many romantic tales exist of princes and kings ending their bloodlines forever by taking Ainyu brides.
Ainyu emotionally are as varied as any race, but they tend toward goodness, worshiping the kind deity Arcline. Most of them live in small communities, welcoming the harmony and simplicity of country life. Many become clerics or manifest healing power. A lot of Ainyu clerics become “Guardian Spirits” to small towns and communities, using their acquired divine magic to mimic the natural divinity of true spirits.
They are compassionate and empathic, and it is rare for one to lean towards the darkness and allow itself to be swallowed. Ainyu are deeply spiritual, themselves being spirits, and though their worship gives little essence to the great masters (since they need to keep some to maintain their own lives), they partake in it nonetheless.
A major differentiating factor between Ainyu is the color of their motes. Ainyu recognize each other immediately by the feeling they exude from each other’s motes, but others can recognize them more by the colors and by the “tics” of their motes – positions and movements they commonly make.
-Common Professions: Any low-class job, town spirit, healer, justice.
-Names: Usually named after concepts, flowers, emotions, such as Joy, Art, or any Iomadi or Human name.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 17, lives around 120 years. Does not age physically beyond adulthood.
•Setah: (Seh-tah): Setah are wolf descendant humanoids that originated in the wild feylands within the vast jungles of Selvage. They are as though an opposite to Lycanthropes, being humanoids with some wolf features rather than beasts who mimic the humanoid form. Indeed, the two races are said to be linked in the distant past. Setah can focus their minds to channel the wild rage of a predatory animal and prefer melee combat.
Setah have furry ears and collars of fur on their necks, furry tails and predatory eyes. Some are even more feral, having larger amounts of fur and a terrible odor. They are otherwise very human-like. Setah reproduce normally with other Setah and humanoids. Many are hunters and mercenaries, but a select few also take up a divine calling and become ferocious Paladins of Ravindra. Like all races, they are corruptible, and can also fall into worship of Koyki and the beastly slaughter and chaos that he promotes as a natural state.
All Setah tend to be deeply spiritual and honor-bound in all sport and combat: even if the only honor they give is a swift death and the only spirits they worship those of destruction. Most Setah do not fall to the violent extreme of a beast, but many do.
-Common Professions: Any low-class job, mercenary, hunter.
-Names: Usually named after fruits, animals and plants, such as Bison, Lobelia.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 12, lives around 90 years. Begins to age significantly at around 50, becomes enfeebled by age around 80, but the toll isn’t as heavy as in other races.
•Rhonnu: (Row-nu): Rhonnu are devilish humanoid creatures, often referred to derisively as imps. They are scheming humanoids with sharp bat-wing ears and small horns. The shape and location of the horns depends on the individual, but they tend to sprout from the sides of their heads. Their skin tends to be red, brown and sometimes even black or grey, with purple, red or yellow eyes. Their hair is of dark coloration, and they possess long, forked tails. Tieflings posit that Rhonnu are distant cousins or off-shoots of them, but the Rhonnu believe themselves to be superior to the dying race and want nothing to do with them. Tiefling minorities in Rhonnu dominated areas tend to be treated rather badly due to this.
Often callous, cruel and completely self-interested, the Rhonnu have a reputation for subterfuge. Most Rhonnu are bad eggs. It might be their essence derivation that drives them so, but most tend to be at best indifferent to other creatures, and at worst evil and self-absorbed. Many become thieves and many more seek Warlock pacts to expand upon their dark powers. In corrupt governments like Vedaria and Periterim they tend to hold positions of power over creatures they deem lesser to them.
The position of a Rhonnu’s horns and their shape tends to indicate something about it, or so it is said. For example, one with Ram’s horns is more reserved, while straight horns might mean mischievous. Though it is rare that this be completely true, many people believe it.
-Common Professions: Any middle class job, politician, lawyer, mercenary.
-Names: Usually grandiose names like Cornwallis and Tytania.
-Lifespan: Adulthood at 20, lives around 140 years. Does not age significantly after adulthood.
•Inaw: (Ee-naw): Inaw are undead humanoids made of other humanoids. Inaw are stitched together from various parts into a complete and new creature, surviving by some dark powers still not fully understood. The level of craftsmanship in Inaw varies wildly. Some might be horridly-stiched hulks while others might be inconspicuous save for the stitches and discoloration. Some might even be exotically attractive and even beautiful by design. Clay, wood, mithral steel, or other reinforcing materials may be used to make the body strong. All Inaw have sockets in their shoulders and hands where tools and weapons can be fitted. Inaw can plug these holes with clay, wooden plugs or corks if they choose.
Where Inaw differ from other undead is that the method that yields an Inaw does not render it unstable. An Inaw is endowed with an artificial consciousness from the magic used, one that subsumes the wills of however many individual pieces of it retain any essence.
Inaw creation is outlawed. It originated during the Intolerable War, but rarely saw use there. After the war, Necromancers who got hold of the mostly untested formulae for creating Inaw added them to Necromantic tomes and refined the technique. Inaw are still illegally created to this day. The Inaw were designed to fit two broad niches and aid their necromantic masters with some very focused abilities. Adept Vassals were laboratory partners and aided in rituals and construction or creation of other undead, or sometimes golems. Blood Servants were killers and assassins, bodyguards for the necromancer. To this day they are still made, and when released are treated as victims of slavery.
Emotionally, Inaw tend to lack any sort of common sense and instead behave very literally and logically. Almost all Inaw try to reconstruct the hierarchy they were raised in, classifying their new families as “masters” or “taskmasters” or “second-in-commands” and so forth, depending on their experiences. Most are confused by the prospect of leading their own lives and tend to follow orders or seek submission to others.
Inaw do not reproduce and do not have much bodily function – though they can force their supernatural selves to take some life-like semblance, such as forcing an illusory blush, digesting food or pretending to breathe. If they are hurt but not killed, they can return to their preserved state from right after their “birth”, growing back any hair burnt off, healing any of the flesh lost, mending broken bone, just as a human body heals.
-Common Professions: Any low or middle class job; assassin, ritual caster.
-Names: Whatever the necromancer thought was appropriate.
-Lifespan: Undead, therefore does not grow old and does not die of age, and is “born” as an adult.
